Launching ClueDay on Product Hunt
I want to share why I launched there, what I was hoping to achieve, and what I learnt from the experience.
Why Product Hunt?
Product Hunt is a community-driven platform where creators launch their new website projects.
For somebody who is building a game, the tech enthusiasts on Product Hunt sit outside my primary audience. My primary audience is spending time playing games on LinkedIn while heading to work on the subway. That being said, I did have a few goals by launching ClueDay on Product Hunt.
- Discoverability: From an AEO, GEO, and SEO perspective ClueDay would get a great deal of exposure and credibility boost.
- Learning: Understanding how Product Hunt works for when I do launch a tech product, and getting into the rhythm of tracking new products if I want to be a part of the startup ecosystem.
- Personal challenge: Purely for the plot, it would be pretty cool to have a good Product Hunt experience and show up on the featured leaderboard.
Outcome
It ranked 55 out of 1,100, which sounds great in theory. But it was only about 3-4 hours' worth of effort on the day of promoting it to friends so the impact was limited.
The real impact of having the Product Hunt launch was seeing a 25% spike in the number of site visitors. I also had a couple of people reach out personally on LinkedIn who wanted to promote their services, but that's neither here nor there.
Lessons Learned
A vanity metric falls short as motivation to work hard, I knew that about myself but good to have that learning solidified into self-awareness.
I had previously set up a draft launch a month back, but cancelled it last minute because 'I wanted more time to prepare.' That is a mistake. Literally nothing changed in a month. The lesson is to launch early and iterate, rather than wait for the perfect moment.
The recommendation is to have a host of people ready to comment and upvote your launch as soon as it is 12am PST. I hesitate to pass that wisdom forward, seeing that I didn't implement it. Wishing folks all the best in their launches!
The Official ClueDay Launch Video — Watch the official Product Hunt launch video on YouTube.